The Republicans, he notes, have abandoned the principles of self-ownership and free markets, switching from what he calls a Jeffersonian focus to one of progressive strongman types like Teddy Roosevelt.

"Hard work, risk, reward, and recognition of the reality there are no guarantees in life" have all been abandoned by both major parties, with a "mommy state" pushed by the Democrats and a "daddy state" pushed by the Republicans, he says.

"No party is entitled to my membership or my support," Madsen says. He is going where his principles take him, he said, which is to the Libertarian Party and to support of its presidential ticket of Gary Johnson and William Weld.

"Liberty, agency, ingenuity, and opportunity" are the values he says the L.P. stands for.

While he insists he'd made up his mind about the switch before the Republican National Convention last week, Madsen did mention how untoward he found it that fellow Republicans were shouting at the Utah delegation, and their federal Sen. Mike Lee, that they were not welcome in the GOP any longer if they were not 100 percent behind Donald Trump.

Madsen admits that the party switch is "largely symbolic" since he will only be a sitting Libertarian in the Senate for less than 6 months. When asked what the point was, then, he said that a big part was to make the press come and listen to his message about the Republicans' abandonment of freedom-related principles, from civil rights to property rights to medical marijuana. He called on others in politics concerned with people's right to manage their own lifes to reconsider their political affiliations.

His inability to get a medical marijuana bill through the Utah legislature was, he says, part of his disillusionment with the Republicans and modern politics, but reinforced a decision he was already inclined to make about a political world where ability to make choices and accept consequences about one's own life were not respected, one where even elected officials allegedly dedicated to freedom usually just kowtow to bureaucratic processes.

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The Republicans, he notes, have abandoned the principles of self-ownership and free markets, switching from what he calls a Jeffersonian focus to one of progressive strongman types like Teddy Roosevelt.

Why are you cosmos so invested in the Republicans? We finally get an independent candidate with an excellent shot at blowing up the duopoly and y’all start singing HITLER in harmony with the neoconservative GOP establishment and the communist progs.

Heh, the Democrats are running a grifter, the Republicans are running a Democrat, and the Libertarians are running two Republicans. It’s political musical chairs, and libertarians missed the end of the song.

“The Republicans, he notes, have abandoned the principles of self-ownership and free markets, switching from what he calls a Jeffersonian focus to one of progressive strongman types like Teddy Roosevelt.”

What he’s mistaken about is that the party he’s active in should already be in agreement with him. The GOP he had a chance to move, while LP is already where he wants. What good is having more libertarians in the LP?

Possible. I honestly hope so. I think a few might go that way. But the Democrats are leaning even harder on the retarded “If you don’t vote for our guy, you’re supporting the bogeyman!” trope than the Republicans. It could be they’re scared. And it could be they’re just that retarded (or at least think their voters are).

Every spoiler vote the LP earns abolishes a stupid usurpation disguised as a law somewhere–and makes it harder for any gang of looters to pass a tax hike. That’s winning. Look at Australia. One or two dogs guide the directions of gigantic flocks of mindless sheep. Spoiler votes are kinda like that, only leveraged off of the looter kleptocracy’s own cupidity and treacherous perfidy.

He’s a young feller so I’ll forgive him for just now noticing what some of us have been saying for about 40 damn years. Nixon proclaiming “we’re all Keynesians now”, imposing wage and price controls and signing off on the EPA should have been dead giveaways that something was off with that small government message.

But the Republicans during that time also abolished the draft, staved off socialized medicine for decades, reduced personal marginal income tax rates greatly, legalized gold ownership, and other good stuff.

The libertarian party is the only party compatible with Robert Heinlein, Robert Rimmer and Joseph Smith plural marriage. It is high time another state elector summoned the courage to vote libertarian, It won’t undo the cowardly capitulation of 1890, but it couldn’t hurt.

“Liberty, agency, ingenuity, and opportunity” are the values he says the L.P. stands for.

That’s the biggest problem that the libertarian movement has, right there… the average American does not know what ‘agency’ is, and confuses ‘liberty’ with a license of limitless freedom to do whatever the heck he wants without any responsibility. We need to do a far better job of communicating.

RE: Utah Sen. Madsen on Defecting to the Libertarian Party: The GOP Has Abandoned Jeffersonian Principles

It is difficult to pin down the exact date when the republicans wisely abandoned the asinine Jeffersonian principles. One can make the case during the Great Depression of 1929. It was about three years later, in 1932, the republican part wisely choose the “me too” of advancing the prudent principles of socialism with Comrade FDR. Over the years, the republicans discovered that socialist policies would benefit them and their cronies with some really stupid political actions. The republicans were slow in catching on to socialism but give them credit. They eventually caught on, and with the aid and assistance of their fellow slavers, the democrats, we are now advancing to the final stages of the Great Peoples Revolution. So let us rejoice that the republicans have abandoned the archaic and ridiculous principles of liberty, free markets and small government. The only thing left to do now is to properly indoctrinated the unwashed masses so they too will see the folly of the failed Jeffersonian beliefs and practices. Then, we will all have a sudden realization just how wonderful and liberating it is to be a slave in a workers paradise, give all our money and efforts the ruling elitist class turds and march down the avenues every day, hand-in-hand singing “The International.” (Wipes tears of joy from cheek,) Socialism just can’t come fast enough to our beloved nation!